The Colonial Frame: Judith Butler and Simone Weil on Force and Grief

This chapter examines Simone Weil’s writings on colonialism, placing them in conversation with contemporary post- and decolonial theory. The chapter first presents Judith Butler’s concept of the “frame” in order to suggest that Weil elucidates “the colonial frame”—namely, the way the ideology of colonialism conditions its subjects to see themselves, others, and the world in such a manner that colonial violence is normalized, legitimized, and maintained. Second, it argues that Weil reveals the colonial frame in interwar France by performing a critical phenomenology of colonizing society, bringing our attention to the particular, material, everyday situations in which the ideology of colonialism manifests itself, such as instances of grieving. The chapter concludes by offering cautionary notes against three potential responses to the colonial frame (inclusion, pity, and tolerance) and by contending that the political value of Weil’s example lies in its emphasis on self-critique.